This article discusses what colleges and universities can learn from Uncle Sam and corporate America when it comes to designing secure networks and ensuring privacy. After all, schools face many of the same privacy and information security challenges seen in the business and government sectors. The fact of the matter is, in the age of cyber crime and identity theft, hackers don't discriminate among academia, the government, and corporate America. Generally speaking, colleges and universities, small businesses, and financial services firms are most frequently targeted by hackers. Still, academia's open, collaborative nature provides the perfect breeding ground for hackers to test nefarious code. Small businesses, on the other hand, are easily targeted because they typically lack dedicated IT teams. And financial services firms are popular targets for hackers who are hoping to profit from their attacks. This article also discusses several security trends that cut across universities, business, and government.